This invention relates to a device for controlling opening and closing of movable objects, in particular doors and drawers in motor vehicles, having mutually cooperating stator and rotor.
It is known to subject doors and drawers in general to the action of elastic means in order to provide controlled opening thereof. Such opening arrangements find convenient application for instance, in motor vehicles because they make the operation of opening ashtrays, drawers, paper bins, and the like easier to perform. However the biasing action of the elastic means must be suitably slowed down or dampened in order that the opening action does not occur with a snap action or too rapidly; this to prevent objects, in the instance of paper holding drawers, and ash and cigarette butts in the instance of ashtrays, from being thrown out.
It is also known to provide such drawers and ashtrays with mechanisms for holding them shut which are releasable on the mere exertion of a pressure on the door or drawer, thereby both the closing operation and the releasing operation for opening purposes can be effected by pushing on said door or ashtray; such holding mechanisms are referred to by the skilled artisan as "push-push" systems.
Drawers and ashtrays subjected to elastic opening means are currently provided with mutually independent slowing down means and holding means, thereby the structure as a whole is made complicated, expensive, and occasionally unreliable in operation.
Furthermore, the holding mechanism of the type specified above, where adopted, are dedicated, that is formed as an integral part of the ashtray, or drawer, wherefor they are intended, in the sense that at least most of the members of which they are composed are molded in, or permanently secured to, the structure of the drawer or ashtray.
This makes the mechanism unusable for other applications and involves the use of complicated and expensive molds.